“The performance and result were perfect”

Sebastian Schonlau: Sebastian Schonlau: That was a brilliant end to a difficult year. It was a great performance from the first to the last minute today, after there had been spells in our last few games when we didn’t play well. Everything was right today, which is great for the team and all the fans. We had a lot of the ball, were strong defensively and created a lot of chances going forward. The way we controlled the game today was good. Overall, the performance and result were perfect. The coaching staff prepared us well. Merlin Polzin gave us a lot of things to work on, which helped us. We want to carry on on this path after the winter break.

Jonas Meffert: It was a lot of fun out there today. We wanted to show again how good of a team we are and how much work we’ve put in over the past few weeks. We did exactly that. We’ve averaged two points a game under Merlin Polzin. That says it all. He’s changed certain things and also tried to play everyone in the position they feel most comfortable in. We wanted to show from the start that this is our stadium. Of course, a lot contributed to this result, but we can be proud of ourselves. We’ve had a good record of points per game over the last four matches. We can be pleased with that, as can our fans, who’ve always been behind us despite a slightly disappointing first half of the season. It’s important that everyone here sticks together, so we can finally achieve our aim.

“A perfect day with a lot of great storylines” Davie Selke

Davie Selke: It was a perfect day today with a lot of great storylines. We delivered everything we’d planned to on the pitch. We wanted to start with intent and get our reward for a good first half. We’ve had a lot of first halves in the past where we’ve played well but not scored. It was also important though that we carried on playing well in the second period. To be honest, I was even happier about Otto’s goal than I was about my goals. He’s a lad who’s always looking to learn, and he lives and breathes HSV. We always pray together before the match, and today I told him: there’s something big in store for you today. It was even more special that he could celebrate the goal in front of our own fans.

Miro Muheim: It’s been a mixed first half of the season. We haven’t always been as consistent as we’ve wanted to be. Nevertheless, today was a great way to round it off. We executed our game plan perfectly, and fought for each other. We can now swich off for a bit and then get back to giving everything in training. We want to play better as a team. That’s our number one aim, and I want to help us achieve that with my own performances.

“It was just great fun watching the team” Merlin Polzin

Merlin Polzin: I’m very pleased that we scored from another set piece, because these situations can be a real weapon for us. We were solid defensively and dangerous going forward. It was just great fun watching the team. I was very happy with how the team came out after the break and just kept going. We played with a lot of energy. We’ve worked on a lot of things over the past week, learnt from our mistakes and reacted well in the end. For us, it’s about putting our plan into practice as well as possible, and we managed that really well today. This is a process, an evolution. I’m pleased for the players, the staff and everyone associated with HSV.

Jan Siewert: It felt like the game was already over after the first 15 minutes. We didn’t bring the intensity we need to win matches. We were missing what we’ve had for the last few weeks. I can’t really do a full analysis with all the emotion, but the result speaks for itself. It’s important that we apologise to our fans who travelled 600 kilometres today. This wasn’t what we’ve shown over the last few weeks.